My Packing List: Lessons Learned and Offered

When I was preparing for Peace Corps service in lovely Namibia, reading blogs like this one, scrolling the PC Nambia site, and cruising about from medical lab to police station to PC headquarters and back to the medical lab, I came across a lot of recommended packing lists.  Gosh, they recommended a lot of stuff.  So I started making lists, which eventually coalesced as a spreadsheet, with headers like, “Work Clothes,” “Workout Clothes,” “Office Supplies,” “Hardware,” “Camping Gear,” “Personal,” and “Luxury.”  I listed everything the lists recommended, and then started my pruning.  You cannot bring everything the lists recommend; not in two suitcases, a carry-on and a personal item.

A few notes about those suitcases, that carry-on, and that personal item.  My group flew on South African Airways, ticketed through United.  They were kind about the checked bags, and overlooked a bit of overweight here and there.  However, you should try to distribute weight evenly between the two checked bags.  Several people had one seriously overweight and one underweight bag, and had to re-pack on the terminal floor.

They were pretty strict about the carry-on:  THEIR WEIGHT LIMIT FOR A CARRY-ON BAG IS EIGHT KILOGRAMS, or 17.6 pounds.  They might let you go over by a kilo, maybe even two if they’re in an especially sunny mood, but they confiscated a lot of carry-ons from my group, and checked them through.  If you want to keep a change of clothes or two, toothbrush, and your laptop and camera with you on the flight (all recommended), weigh that stuff and pack it carefully.  Also check the dimensions of your carry-on; US airlines allow slightly larger ones than many non-US airlines do.

No, you cannot bring a giant tote weighing 15kg and claim it is your purse.  But you can bring a small knapsack as a personal item, and judiciously distribute your heavier, most precious (steal-able or break-able) things between that and the official carry-on.  Good luck.

Bear in mind, too, that several of my colleagues brought just one checked bag, the carry-on and the personal item.  If they can do it, maybe you can, too?

I packed a large, wheeled suitcase and a large backpack as my checked bags.  I had my wheeled carry-on, which got confiscated for overweight and checked through at no charge.  My knapsack was the personal item, frantically stuffed with everything I most wanted from my carry-on.

I’m using everything I brought.  Here’s some of the more useful items, organized as a house tour:

Everything but the truffle salt acquired at Shop Rite.
Or maybe Spar.

A lot of the packing lists recommended bringing your favorite spices.  I didn’t, really, and it’s been fine.  So far I’ve found everything I want in the shops, and at reasonable prices.  That said, I get to shop in Swakopmund, which caters to European tastes, which are similar to North American tastes, so maybe I get an advantage in that.  But none of my colleagues have complained about not being able to find spices.  Great beers, yes; but not spices.  That said, if you have a particular taco seasoning mix or prepared curry blend that you love especially, you should consider bringing some as a special treat.  I brought a small bag of truffle salt a friend gave me (thanks, T!), thinking it might be amusing to fix myself truffle popcorn during my Peace Corps service.  I was right; it is.

I like having good knives, but they're definitely not essential.

A couple of lists also suggested bringing good kitchen knives.  Since I have a set, I brought the chef’s knife and the sandwich knife, the two I use most.  They’re not heavy and don’t take much room in the luggage, so I’m glad I did.  I could have bought good knives in Swakop, or used less-good knives from the grocery store, but either choice would have made a serious dent in my settling-in allowance, and the grocery-store knives mandate a lot of sawing.  There are, of course, worse things in life than sawing.  I did buy a bread knife (serrated) in Swakop, since I bake my own; it cost about $150, which was less than $15 US, but is 8%!! of my settling-in allowance.

You can decide for yourself (you’re welcome) what electronics you love best.  One good trick is to buy a used, unlocked smart phone on Ebay or similar; then you can just get a sim card for it in country and you should be ready to roll.  iPhones are way expensive here, so they’re definitely theft-magnets; Samsungs are much more common and so excite less interest.

 

You will need a power adaptor, which you can buy in Johannesburg Airport easily and not expensively.  (I forget what they cost, actually.)  The Namibian outlets, like the South African, are a triangular configuration of one large and two smaller round holes.  The brilliance of the adaptor is that it’s configured to accept a jillion different devices, including US two- and three-prongs, and the European plugs on the cheapo dumb phone you’ll probably buy here.  Brilliant!

 

I bought the multi-device plug device in the US to bring with me.  I plug it into the adaptor when US friends visit, and everyone can charge at once.  It’s great.  You should have one if you’re a multi-device kind of person.  It also has two USB plugs at the top.

The black cord is for my phone.

cozy!

I did not bring a sleeping bag with me, as I did not own a good one.  So I waited for PST shopping day at the Maerua Mall in Windhoek (Cape Union Mart, I think; you can hold out for Cymot if you want the Namibian chain), and got this super-fab one for less than $900, or about US$ 70.  That’s a great deal versus what I’d have paid at REI, although maybe you can get a good used one for less.  It’s rated for freezing temps, which is sufficient for any part of Namibia, and I use it as my comforter/blanket whatever at home, as well as for bedding when I visit other PCVs and on my one camping trip for work.

 

I brought my Camelback and its bladder – empty, of course, for the TSA.  If I’m going to be traveling or hiking I fill the bladder the night before and put it in the freezer if one’s available.  The ice melts all the next day, and if I’m just driving around like on a trip north, it will last two days or a bit more, and stay cold for a lot of that.  Weather depending, of course.  Ice water.  Yum.  I also brought the big backpack, which is great for longer trips as it’s much easier to transport than a wheelie suitcase in most towns and villages, where road and sidewalk surfaces may be a bit rough.  The red duffel bag collapses to very small, and it’s light.  For shorter trips, I use that – the sleeping bag at one end and clothes for three or four days at the other.  I magically look less like a tourist with a duffel bag than with a backpack.

 

Toiletries are cheap here compared to the US.  Do not stock up on generic shampoos or lotions at 

Piz Buin is the PC sunscreen.  Instant ice packs are handy
if you have them, but not worth a special purchase unless
you bang yourself up a lot.  Fisherman's Friend is the best
cough drop in the world.  Tastes horrible (unless you like
licorice), but highly effective.  Practically anaesthetic. 

Costco; you’ll find something just as good and a lot lower priced in Namibia.  Of course, if you absolutely must have the special-brand curl tamer with night-blooming jasmine juice or whatever, you probably won’t find it here.  That said, it’s pretty dry in most of Namibia, so your curls may tame naturally...  I brought spray sunscreen because there was a big sale at CVS and it’s the best way to protect my back and shoulders from sunburn.  I also picked up some of the special face-sunscreen, so my eyes don't sting.  Peace Corps will provide you with lotion sunscreen, dental floss, eye-wetting drops, lip balm, aspirin and all its many relatives, throat lozenges and a malaria self-test kit.  They don’t provide aloe for when you do sunburn yourself.  They should.  I’m going to mention it again.

I brought a big terrycloth towel.  I wouldn’t do that again.  It takes up too much room, and since line-drying is a given, even if you’re one of the few lucky enough to get an automatic washer (I don’t know whether any of us have one, actually), the towel won’t stay soft and fluffy.  Friends gave me a travel towel, and that’s much better.  (Thanks, C&K!)  It’s light, compact, absorbent, and quick to dry.  It’s good to have a spare towel when friends visit, but pfui on friends who didn’t bring their own gosh-darn travel towel.  Maybe you could bring two travel towels if you have generous US friends.

Gardening gloves!  I use them at the garden and for picking up trash in my yard.  The wind is strong here, and everybody's garbage blows through my yard.  I'm not big on dirty diapers at the best of times, and when I don't know whose they are, they somehow seem especially icky.  I am so glad I brought my gardening gloves!

I did not bring my yoga mat, since it's a very awkward shape to pack.  Instead I bought a mat at Totalsport in Maerua Mall.  I think that was the only place anyone ever found an exercise mat.  It cost $280; about US$25.  That's high, right?  Since then I've heard of travel yoga mats -- I'd look into that if I were doing it over again. 

Family and friend photos, in hard copy!  Most PCVs decorate with these in some way.  Thanks to everyone who donated to the collection (K&K, R, M, J, another J, L).








Along the lines of the truffle salt, I brought a lovely tea set that used to soothe my workday afternoons at the office.  Now it's a treasured trifle that makes me smile even when I don't have time to brew a proper cup of tea in it.  Thanks, C!

 

That's a lot of posting, right?  I'll do a separate one about my work wardrobe.

Sunsets of Namibia Indeed

Sunday is often laundry day at home; yesterday I did seven tubs of wash and rinse.  When I stepped outside about 19h30 as we say here, or 7:30pm as I once called it, to bring in the last of the drying, this is what I saw:

Now I realize this may be a quotidian sight for plenty of people in the developed world - Scarlett O'Hara, for instance, and those of you in Montana, maybe, or the higher-rent neighborhoods of the Bay Area (though I suppose you wouldn't get the wonky laundry line in most high-rent neighborhoods), or England's West Country or wherever, but for me...  Not something I'm used to seeing of an evening in the mid-Atlantic suburbs.  Pretty sweet.

Special Day: Handover Ceremonies

Looking back to August 2015:


In 2013, Rössing Foundation supported Dreamland Garden and the Ûiba Ôas Crystals Market, both in the Erongo Region of Namibia, to apply for and win a grant from Namibia's Social Security Commission Development Fund.  The SSC is similar to the US version; employed people pay a small portion of their salaries, and employers pay a small portion of their payroll, into an account that pays out on retirement or in case of disability.  In Namibia, SSC also provides financial support to women on maternity leave, as that's not typically covered by employers.

The SSC also has a mandate to support employment creation, and the Development Fund grants are directed toward that effort.  Thanks to a thorough and well-development application, the Garden/Market won the 2013 grant, two years of financial assistance for identified needs to make the business more robust and sustainable.  The Garden was able to pay for construction of a greenhouse to provide shade and wind protection for its produce, as well as some tools and equipment for expansion and a solar-powered automatic irrigation system.  The Market got a machine for cutting and polishing stones and crystals, and some more of the toilet blocks that its target market - tourists - values so highly.

On the 18th of August 2015, the grants officially closed and the resources they provided for the two projects were officially handed over to the project owners.  There was a great deal of pomp and ceremony attached to the events, as is the norm for official occasions here.


We started at the Dreamland Garden in Arandis, arranging chairs and head tables.  The gardeners were gussied up in their best duds -- no overalls today!  (Overalls here are not what they are in the US -- just a work uniform of poly-blend trousers and long-sleeved shirt/jacket top, often with reflective safety stripes somewhere.) 

Gardeners, gussied.

The dignitaries arrived, including the governor of the Erongo region, the mayor of Arandis, a couple of town councillors, an executive officer of the SSC, the managing director of Rössing Uranium and the executive director of Rössing Foundation.  Whew.  That's some star power.

His Worship the mayor wears an impressive badge of office.

We open ceremonies like this with a prayer, and usually with some kind of cultural performance.  In this case, three of the gardeners sang -- beautifully.  Then we toured the garden, briefly, and head gardener Elizabeth explained about the soil they use, the water-conservation techniques they employ, and the vegetables they grow -- mostly spinach, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and parsley.

Praise music, in Kavango.

Then we had speeches -- five of them. As is the protocol, each speaker thanked each of the other speakers, plus a non-speaking dignitary or two, plus a specific group or two or three ("all councillors", "the Dreamland Garden team", "members of the media"), plus the generic "honored guests," and then says, "The protocol is observed." I don't know whence this protocol stems.

Elizabeth began her speech by saying, "Pando kanomvenye maweesa tampandura. I say to each of you, Welcome, and thank you for being here. I spoke first in my mother language, Kavongo, because that is the language I use most when I speak to the plants. Be certain that, like all good Namibians, they also like to hear English – and Oshiwambo, Damara-Nama, Afrikaans, Otjiherero and many others!" She was nervous about speaking when we first discussed it, but she aced it like a born public speaker.

"Growing anything in the desert is not an easy task but a challenge!"

After the speeches, we stepped outside and the governor and SSC officer formally handed the keys to the greenhouse to Elizabeth and her fellow gardeners. 

This is why it's called a 'handover.'

We raced away to Mummy's Restaurant for lunch, and then piled back into cars to race east toward the Ûiba Ôas Crystals Market, and did much the same thing again.

My boss & avid photographer; RUL MD, RF ED, SSC EO, and RUL GM

Damaras dancing

This time the cultural performance was Damara singing and dancing, by the members of the market co-op.  And the first speech was by co-op chairperson Diana, who gave her many thanks and then said, "I am pleased to greet you, and to welcome you all in the name of rural development. I may confess, though, that most days I myself, like so many of my brothers and sisters here, I would rather be out there, in the field, prospecting and mining. This is the work I know well, and love.

"My grandmother was a miner. For many decades, she worked with a hammer and chisel on and around Spitzkoppe, bringing beautiful gems and crystals from the rocks and the earth. I think of her often as I work, carrying on this tradition of our people.
"I think of her, too, and a hundred years of small-scale miners, when I stand in the stalls here and greet tourists who ask, Is it really Mother Nature who is doing this?  Even without cutting, or polishing, our stones are beautiful.  Of course, we are all accustomed to the many beauties of our Namibia.  But ladies and gentlemen, for we who stand in this wonderful market, sharing what nature has to show with people from Windhoek, from the north, from many parts of Africa, and from Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific -- our work is an honor, and a joy."

Everyone applauded spontaneously when Diana said, "We are ambitious."

After the remaining speeches, the grand finale was a ribbon-cutting on the cutting-and-polishing workshop, and a demonstration of the whizz-bang new cutting-and-polishing machine.  There was also food (a fancy ceremony like this is a great excuse to feed a lot of people who don't see many calories in a typical day), and then a bit of dancing amongst us hoi polloi whilst the dignitaries departed.  I got to quick-step around the market with a couple of folks I hadn't met before; we observed the heck out of that protocol.

I couldn't get close enough to get a good shot of the ribbon-cutters...

Many of us did not fit into the cutting-and-polishing workshop for the demo.

Congratulations to Petra, Rössing, and all the gardeners and miners who worked hard to make this day happen.  There was a lot of work before the celebration could occur.

Congratulations, too, to the Ûiba Ôas Aqua-Stars, who placed second in the previous week's soccer tournament.  Note their awesome hair-shavings.  The 'aqua' in their name is for aquamarines, by the way -- there's not enough water around here that they can spare any for sports-team names.

A Typical Day

So here's what I do on a typical day as a PCV in a small town in the Namib Desert:

I wake up and say good morning to K&C's monkey from La Sandia.




Then I wash yesterday's socks and myself.

Breakfast is usually corn flakes, sometimes with a banana.



I dress and take my anti-malarial doxy and a vitamin pill.



Then I walk to work - ten minutes or so.



Along the way I may run into this nice ol' guy...



and offer a snack (thanks, M!) or pats.  He loves pats, but maybe snacks more.



At the office...

I say, "!Gai /goas" to Helena...

And, "Goie more" to Ester in the senior library.



Then I head for my office and log in to the network.

Most of my work is research and writing - letters, grant applications - and preparing for English classes and business classes I hope to commence teaching in March.  I also meet with a few people each week who are looking for ideas, advice or assistance for their small businesses.  I expect that will pick up once the classes begin.  I have to remember to get up and stretch at some point, or I'd spend most of each day just sitting in my desk chair.





In the afternoon some kids might come by and color.  Thanks, M!

My bulletin board is a lot fuller now

than it was in August, when I took this photo.



And walk past this de-commissioned ore truck as I head back to the house.



Collect my toasty warm and thorougly-dry socks from the line...

Depending on the season, I may find dead flies on the windowsill at home.

I try to get some exercise before supper, or maybe after according to day-length
and hunger levels.  Noodles and veg; that's pretty typical.  Maybe more often
rice pilaf with lentils and veg or fried rice with veg and an egg.

Friends and family join me - in photos - at supper.

A bath as needed, and back to bed.